Playboy Disaster- reboot
by sunriseangel333
Summary: Percy is the local bad boy. At least in the eyes Annabeth Chase, the kindergarten teacher. Having grown up together, they know a lot about each other but there are a lot of things that they don't know, especially Annabeth. Can the forces of nature bring these long time rivals together or will the past get in the way? Read chapter 1 for an important Author's note about this story.
1. Chapter 1

Since Jumpman23E is unable to continue with this story, we talked and it was decided that I would take it over for him. The first five chapters are EXACTLY what he wrote, his was originally 7 chapters, but I've combine a couple of the shorter chapters to make longer ones. All I've done is pick it up from where he left off. So if you started reading his story, you should jump to chapter 6, if not then start here and read this fabulous story from the beginning. I don't want messages about how this is the same story as his because I KNOW! I also don't want messages about stealing or copying, he and I made this decision together and he gave me the chapters to repost. That being said, I hope you enjoy my first collaborative effort, I'm really looking forward to it. And THANK YOU Jumpman23E for allowing me to continue with your story!

No copyright intended we do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Percy POV

Percy Jackson looked out the window of his house on Falls Mountain and couldn't believe what he saw in town down below. He stopped and swore under his breath. How could the situation have gotten so bad so fast? He should have been keeping an eye on it.

But he'd been busy, his mind on work. And it was later than usual when he stopped for lunch and came upstairs.

He could kick his own ass for not paying more attention. It had to be about the wettest day ever in Augusta, Virginia. The rain had been coming down in boatloads since yesterday morning. And Augusta Creek, which ran northwest to southeast through the center of town, had been steadily rising.

Percy had told himself it was no big deal. The creek had huge levees on either side, levees that had held without a break for as long as anyone could remember. He'd never thought that they would ever break. And yet somehow, sections of the levee on the south bank were crumbling. Through the thick, steady veil of rain that streamed down the windows, he watched it happen.

The levee just broke, sending silver torrents of water pouring through more than one break. It was a lot of water and it was rushing fast and furious onto the lower elevation south side of town. And the water wouldn't be stopping on the edge of town, either. South of town lay Augusta Valley, chalk full of small farms and ranches and any number of smaller creeks and streams that would no doubt also be overflowing their banks.

The Double J, his family's ranch, was down there in the path of all that water. He dug in his pocket searching for his cell to find that he had no signal. With the useless cell still in hand, Percy grabbed his keys and headed out into the downpour.

It was a hell of a ride down the mountain. Half of the way down, the road skirted close to the falls. The roar was deafening, and the pounding silver width of the falling water was twice what he was used to seeing. He made it past without a hitch, but if the rain kept up the road could easily be washed out and he would have a hell of time getting back home.

But right now wasn't that time to worry about coming back. He needed to get down there and do what he could to help. He focused his mind on that, keeping his foot lightly on the brake, giving the steering wheel a real workout, as he dodged around mudslides and uprooted trees. With the rain coming down so thick and fast he could barely see through the windshield making staying on the windy road cumbersome. Now and again lightning lit up the gray sky and thunder boomed out, the sound echoing off in the distance, over the valley below.

There were was too many spots where the streams and overflowing ditches had shed their contents across the narrow mountain road. He was lucky to make it through a few of those spots.

Fifteen minutes after sliding in behind the wheel he reached Sawmill Street on the north edge of town. He debated: go right to North Main and see what he could do in town, or go left over the Sawmill Street Bridge, skirt the east side of town and head for the double J.

The rest of his family was hundreds of miles away for the holiday, down in Crater Canyon at a wedding and a family reunion. That made him the only Jackson around. His obligation to the family won out. He turned left and crossed the Sawmill Street Bridge, which was still several feet above the raging water. With a little luck the bridge might hold.

The Double J was southeast of town, so he turned south at Falls Street until he caught sight of the miniature lake that had formed at Commercial and Falls. He saw a couple of swamped vehicles, but they were empty. He turned left again, having been raised here he knew every road in the area like the back of his hand. He used that knowledge now taking only the higher roads avoiding the roads most likely to be flooded working his way steadily to the ranch.

About a mile away from The Double J through the heavy rain he saw another car, a white Toyota Camry crawling on the road

He knew that Camry and he knew who was behind the wheel: Annabeth Chase, the kindergarten teacher. In spite of everything the rain and the flooded road, Percy grinned. Since a certain evening a little more than four years ago, Annabeth had been running away from him and no, he hadn't been chasing her.

He had somewhat of a reputation. People called him a playboy, a player, the Jackson family bad boy. But come on. He had better things to do with his time than go after a woman who wanted nothing to do with him. And since that night four years ago, Annabeth took off like a shot whenever she saw him coming. Percy found her frantic effort to get away from him pretty funny to tell the truth.

His grin faded, she shouldn't be out in this mess. The way she drove so cautious, like some nervous old lady she was likely to misjudge a flooded spot, to get flustered and stomp the brake and end up stopped in the waters that swamped the lower roads.

He knew where she was headed. The turnoff to the Chase Ranch wasn't far past the one to the Double J, but with how she was driving he didn't like her chances for getting there in one piece. Percy changed his priorities, skipping the turn to the Double J, staying on her tail.

The rain came down harder if that was possible. He had his windshield wipers on high, beating fast and hard across the windshield, but even on high they could barely keep up with the amount of water coming down.

Lightning flashed, striking an oak up ahead. The Camry in front of him stopped as the oak crashed to the ground, smoke trailing up in a shower of sparks. Thunder boomed across the valley as the Camry started moving again. Every dip in the road held a streaming miniflood. Each time Annabeth drove her little car down into a trough, Percy held his breath, sure she wouldn't make it through the water, but each time she made it. She drove steadily forward at a safe crawl. And each time, the swirling water had to surrender her to the road.

The ball of dread in his gut tightened to a knot when she suddenly hit the gas no doubt because she had finally noticed that he was the guy in the pickup behind her. Instead of taking it slow and steady as she had been, watching the bad spots on the road in front of her, she was all about getting the hell away from him.

"Fuck Annabeth," he muttered under his breath, as if she might actually hear him. "Slow the fuck down." He leaned on the horn to get her to ease off the accelerator and watch the next dip. It looked pretty deep down there. But the honking only seemed to freak her more. She must have floored it, because the car shot forward and took a nosedive into the water rushing across the low spot in the road.

It was bad, deeper than he thought, once she leveled out she was up to her side windows in churning brown floodwater and going nowhere. Percy hit the brakes. The pickup came to a stop several feet above the flood. He shoved it into Park, turned off the engine, kicked down the parking brake, and jumped out hitting the road running. Instantly drenched to the skin, with the rain beating down like it wanted to flatten him, he reached the churning water and waded in.

Her car was already drifting, picked up by the current and half floating being pushed toward the lower side of the road. The water was too high to see the danger there, but Percy knew that the bank at that spot dropped off into a ditch. If the car went over the edge, he'd have a hell of a time getting Annabeth out before she drowned.

Annabeth POV

She'd been raised in the valley, too. She knew what waited at the edge of the road. Inside the car, she was working the door latch, trying to get it to open. She shouted something at him and beat on the window.

Percy POV

He kept going toward her, though the water seemed to grab at him, to drag him back. It was like those dreams you have where you have to get somewhere fast and suddenly your legs are made of lead. It seemed to be getting deeper, the pull of the current getting stronger with every passing second.

Half stumbling, half swimming, while Camry slowly rotated away from him as it drifted ever closer to the ditch, Percy bent at the knees and launched himself at the driver's door. When he made it to the car, he grabbed the door handle and used it to pull his feet under him again.

"You push, I'll pull!" he yelled good and loud.

She just kept pounding on the window, her brown eyes wide with fright. He hollered even louder than before, "Push on the count of three Annabeth!"

She must have heard him, must have finally understood, because she pressed her lips together and nodded, her blonde, pulled back hair coming loose, the soft curls bouncing around her fear white cheek. She put her shoulder into the door.

"One, two, three!" He pulled. She pushed. The door didn't budge.

"Again! One, two, three!" By some miracle the car rotated enough that the current caught the door as he yanked the handle and she threw her shoulder against it. The damn thing came open with such force it knocked him over.

He went under. The door had hit him in the side of the head. Not that hard, but still.

Trying to be a hero? Not the most fun he'd ever had. Somehow, he managed to get his waterlogged boots under him and pushed himself upright, breaking the surface in time to see his hat spinning away on the current and Annabeth flailing, still inside the car as the water poured in on her through the now open driver's door. Awesome.

He went for her diving through the open door, grabbing for her and catching her arm. He heard her scream or her attempt. The water cut off most of her scream. They had to get out and get out now. He pulled on her arm until he'd turned her, faceup, and then he caught her in a headlock. Okay, it might not have been that delicate, nice and it sure wasn't gentle. But with his arm around her neck, at least he could turn and throw himself out the door she grabbed his arm in both her hands, but by then, she seemed to have caught on to what he was trying to do. She wasn't fighting him anymore. She was only holding as tight as he was.

He squirmed around to face the open door. The water shoving him back but at least the rotation of the vehicle kept the door from swinging shut and trapping them inside. He got his free hand on the door frame, knees bent, and he pushed. They got out just as the car went over the bank into the ditch.

The weight of the vehicle going under sucked at them, but Annabeth slipped free of his hold and started swimming. Since she seemed to be making it on her own steam, he concentrated on doing the same.

Side by side, they swam for the place where the road rose up out of the ditch. His boots touched ground. Beside him, she found her footing too for an instant. Then she staggered and went under. He grabbed her again hauling her up and getting one arm around her waist. Lightning tore another hole in the sky and thunder boomed as he half carried, half dragged her up and out of the racing water.

She coughed and sputtered, but she kept her feet moving the woman had grit. He had to give her that. He kept hold of her urging her to the high side of the road and up the hill far enough that they were well above the water and reasonably safe.

They collapsed side by side onto the steaming ground as the rain continued to beat down on them hard and heavy, never ending. She turned over, got up on her hands and knees and started coughing, spitting up water. He dragged in one long, hungry breath after another and pounded her back for her, helping her clear her airways so she could breath. When she was finally breathing normally, he fell on the ground and concentrated on catching his own breath

He glanced in the direction of his truck. The water had risen a lot, a whole lot, it was maybe two feet from his front wheels now. He turned to the waterlogged woman gasping beside him. "Stay here and don't move. I'll be right back."

Swearing he got up and sprinted to his truck, once there he got in and moved it to higher ground. He looked around and the water was still rising he got out and looked for Annabeth.

She was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**We do no own Percy Jackson soo yea no copy right intended **

Percy POV

A moment later, Percy spotted her. She was on her feet and struggling up the long slope of the hill. He knew where she was headed. There was a big, weathered structure way at the top, the Chase Barn. "Annabeth, what the hell?" he yelled good and loud. "Hold on a minute!"

She didn't stop, she didn't turn. He was tempted to let her go, but who knew what trouble she'd get herself into next?

If something happened to her, he'd end up with a guilty conscience for leaving her. Plus, well, he didn't have a lot of options himself. The floodwaters were all around. He had to get to shelter to wait out the storm and the barn had walls and a roof. It was better than nothing. Annabeth was going to have to get over her aversion of him, at least until there was somewhere else he could go.

He caught up to her maybe twenty yards from the barn. She must have finally heard the sloshing of his shoes and that made her stop. Her arms wrapped around herself to try to control the shivers that racked her, she turned to confront him. "Percy." Water ran down her cheeks, into her wide mouth and over her chin.

He could see her nipples, hard as rocks, right through her shirt and bra. These are things he shouldn't notice in times like this, but there was no avoiding it. "What Annabeth?"

"Thank you for saving my life."

"Hey no problem, can we move it along? It's kind of wet out here. I'd like to get to that barn."

She held her arms tighter around herself. "I would like for you to go away and leave me alone."

"Oh, you would, would you?"

"Yes. Please."

He raised his arms out wide "Exactly where should I go look around Annabeth?"

She flung out a hand. "What about your truck?"

He folded his arms across his chest and simply looked at her.

She let out a low cry. "Oh fine, all right you can come in the barn. Just ugh!" And she turned around again and continued walking. He fell in right behind her. Trudging up the hill he noticed more things about her body, her tiny waist, her curvy ass, and the way her whole body swayed and moved as she walked. He chastised himself for noticing these things about her as they push their way through the downpour, but he couldn't help himself when it came to her.

When they finally reached the barn she undid the latch and slid in. He went in after her and pulled the door closed. The barn had another door on the far wall. Someone had left the door wide open. It was probably not a bad thing in this situation. The Chase livestock had found what they needed through that wide open door.

Percy spotted a golden Labrador retriever. The dog was headed for Annabeth. She let out a happy little cry. "Frank! There you are!" She crouched and opened her arms so the dog could put his paws on her shoulders. Whining with excitement, he licked her face with his sloppy pink tongue. "You are such a bad, bad dog," she said jokingly.

"Nice dog." He'd had a Rottweiler named Mrs. O'Leary who had passed away last winter. She'd been with him since he was ten, he loved that dog, she was an ugly pup, the runt of the litter that only he wanted.

"Down, Frank." She stood up and tried to wipe mud off her shirt and jeans. "He's my dog," she explained, "but he's always loved it here on the ranch, so he lives here more than with me. He was supposed to be staying with me in town, while my parents and Malcolm are out of town." Malcolm Chase, her brother, was the sheriff. "That dog will not stay put. He keeps running off to get back here." A shiver went through her. She wrapped her arms around herself again.

"You're freezing," he said, but it came out unintentionally as an accusation.

"I'm fine." She shivered some more. Her hair was plastered on her cheeks and down her neck she swiped at a soggy hunk of it, shoving it back behind her ear.

Whoa. For a minute there, she'd almost seemed friendly but then she must have remembered that she hated his guts. She turned her back on him and started weaving her way through Livestock. The Lab followed her, panting happily, wagging his tail.

It should have been warmer in there, with all the steaming, livestock, but it wasn't. How could it be, with that far door wide open and both of them soaking wet?

He found a hay bale and sat on it as he thought about what he could do to make things a little more comfortable. He thought about shutting the other door, but the smell of wet livestock and manure would get pretty strong if he did that so he left it open.

As he thought about what to do next, he watched the dripping blonde haired woman who had spent the past four years avoiding him. Circumstances forced them to be in the same room, and not that he minded being around her but she clearly had a problem with their situation. She was busy shivering and ignoring him. She'd always been a fanciful type, even when they were kids. He knew from actual observation. Percy was a wild child, he was an only child and his mom let him do whatever he wanted. He went where he wanted and came home when he felt like it. He wandered everywhere around the area and he often found himself on Chase land, sometimes he'd run into Annabeth. She would be singing songs to herself, making stick houses or reading fairytale books.

She never seemed to like him, even then. Once she yelled at him to stop spying on her. He hadn't been spying. A kid wasn't spying just because he hid in the tall grass and watched a neighbor talk to herself as she walked her Barbie doll around in a circle. He snickered to himself, thinking about the memories. She always seemed like she was too busy or too good to play with him and as they got older she tried to avoid him completely. Memories flooding him, Percy scooted to the wall, leaned his head back against the rough boards, closed his eyes, and tried to focus on the memories instead of how cold he was.

It would have been nice to try to just get some rest, exhausted from his rescue mission, sleep would have been a welcomed distraction from everything. But he had no such luck, the shivering would wrack his body every time and wake him from his sleep state. His mind moved a thousand miles an hour, forcing him to acknowledge that they were in the middle of one of the largest storms seen in the area in decades and that he was stuck with a person that hated him. He hoped no one in town had drowned, that his family ranch was safe, and that they could get out of here without killing each other. He couldn't help but wonder how much the state was affected and how long it would take to recover from such a horrific storm.

Eventually, he stopped trying to sleep and opened his eyes. Annabeth stood at the window with the Lab at her feet; she stared out through the endless rain. He rubbed his arms trying to warm up a little, he watched her and knew she must be staring at her parent's house longing to be able to get to it. The Chase house was at about the same altitude as the barn, on high ground so with any luck damage should be at a minimum.

He knew he was asking for rejection to try and talk to her, but he was just tired and bored enough to do it anyway. "The house should be safe," he said.

She surprised him by saying "Yea I know. I can see it. It's okay, for now…." She sounded kind of dreamy and far away. She added, "It's unbelievable, don't you think? Like maybe this isn't happening. Maybe I'm just asleep."

"Sorry, Annabeth." He meant that. He was sorry. "I think it's really happening."

She looked at him. For once her mouth didn't pinch up at the sight of him. "I lost my phone. Do you have yours?"

"It's in my truck, I think, but there must be towers down. I was getting no signal when I tried using it earlier."

Annabeth sighed and looked out the window again. "Life is fragile isn't it? I mean you go along, doing what you need to do, thinking you're taking care of business, that you're in control, but you're not, not really." Outside lightning flared. "Anything could happen," she said. "It could rain and rain and never stop." He watched her as she spoke and noticed new things about her, her face, her cheeks, and her lips. Her lips looked kind of blue, he thought. He needed to come up with a way to warm her up. He began to work his way around the barn, looking for a blanket or tarp or something.

Annabeth kept talking. "Percy I keep thinking of the children in my class last year, and the ones in our summer school program. I hope they're all safe and dry. Our school it's on the south side of town. And my house is on the south side, to…"

He pushed a goat out of the way as he came to a spot where the wall turned at a ninety degree angle. Around that corner was a door and opened it. "Annabeth there's a tack room here."

She sighed again. "Yea, that's right. And a feed room over there." She put out a hand in the general direction of the other shut door farther down the wall.

Percy took a look around the room. There were rows of hooks holding ropes and bridles and bits. He was a saddle maker and he grinned at the sight of one of his own saddles lined up with several others on the wall, and then he saw the stack of saddle blankets on a big storage trunk. He went over and grabbed one. Shooing out the goat that had followed him in there, he shut the door and made his way to Annabeth.

He wrapped the blanket around her. "Thank you."

He took her by the shoulders. "Come on. Let's go." She went where he guided her without her usual argument or backtalk. They went back through the cattle and horses and goats, with the dog right behind them. He let the dog in the tack room with them, and then shut the door to keep the rest of the animals out. There were a few hay bales. He sat her down on one and knelt in front of her. She frowned down at him. "What are you doing?"

He held her gaze, "Don't freak out on me, okay?"

She looked at him in that pinched suspicious way again. "Why not?"

"You need to get out of those wet clothes. There are plenty of blankets. You can wrap yourself up in them and get dry."

She thought about it and shook her head. "I'll take off my boots and socks. I'll be all right."

He decided not to argue with her. "Fine, do you need help?"

"No, thank you I'll manage."

"Are you thirsty?"

She gaped at him. "Thirsty?" And then she laughed. "In this?" she stuck out a hand toward the water streaming down the window.

"Are you?"

And she frowned again. "Well yea, now that you mention it, I am a little.

He stood up, "I'll see if I can find some clean containers in the barn. We can catch some rainwater, so we won't get dehydrated."

She blinked up at him, "Yes, that makes sense. I'll help." She started to rise.

He took her shoulders again and gently pushed her back down. "Get out of your boots and socks and wrap this around your feet." He said while handing her a blanket.

She took it, "What about you?"

"Let me see about setting out containers for water. Then I'll grab a few blankets and try and warm up a little, too."

He managed to locate containers with little problem, then he sat down near Annabeth and took his boots and socks off. They'd pushed four hay bales together and spread a blanket over them. Side by side, wrapped in more blankets, they passed a bucket of water back and forth.

When they'd both drunk their fill, there was still plenty left in the bucket. He set it on the floor, where Frank promptly stuck his nose in it and started lapping. She scooted back, settling alongside him, and then spent a moment readjusting the blanket she'd wrapped around her feet. "There." She leaned back and let out a long breath. "I think I'm actually beginning to thaw out."

"That was the plan." Outside, the rain kept falling. The sky remained that same dim gray it had been all day. "Do you know what time is?"

"I don't know. Six, seven maybe?" she sounded softer maybe a little sleepy. That was good, rest wouldn't hurt either of them. "It won't be dark for a while."

He was feeling even more drowsy than he did earlier, especially now that he wasn't chilled to the bone anymore and most of the adrenaline rush from the various near-death events of the day had faded a little. He let his eyelids slowly started to droop shut. But then she spoke again, "It's strange, Percy, being here with you like this."

He grunted, "This whole day has been pretty strange."

"Yea, it has been scary, and awful. But that's not what I meant."

He knew exactly what she meant. What he wanted to know was why women always had to dig up stuff that was better left alone? He kept nice and quiet and hoped she wasn't going there.

But she was, "Maybe this is a good chance to clear the air a little between us."

"The air is plenty clear from where I'm sitting."

"Well, Percy, for me, it's not."

"Annabeth, I..."

"No. Wait. I want to say what's on my mind. It was humiliating for me, that night at the Golden Monkey. It was my first time there, did you know? My twenty-first birthday." She sounded sad and wistful.

He'd known, "I think you mentioned that at the time, yeah."

"Octavian had just dumped me for a sorority girl." Octavian was her high school sweet-heart. They'd graduated the same year and headed off to UCLA together. "Percy, did you hear me?"

"Every word," he muttered.

"Did you know it was over between me and Octavian?"

"Well, Annabeth, I kinda had a feeling something might have gone wrong with your love life."

"You led me on," she accused. "You know that you did." He'd seen her coming a mile away. Good-girl Annabeth Chase, out to find a bad boy just for the night. "And then you…" her voice got all wobbly. "You turned me down flat."

"Come on, Annabeth. It wasn't a good idea. You know that as well as I do."

"Then why did you dance with me all those times? Why did you flirt with me and buy me beers? You acted like you were interested, more than interested, and then when I tried to kiss you, you laughed at me. You said I wasn't your type. You said I should go home and behave myself."

He'd had some crazy idea at the time that he was doing her a favor, keeping her from doing something she wouldn't be happy about later, but with Annabeth, no good deed of his ever went unpunished. And was she going to start crying? He hated it when a woman started crying.

She sniffled in her blankets, a small, lost little sound. "I still can't believe I did that- made a pass at you. I mean, you never liked me and I never cared much for you and we both know that." That wasn't true not on his part anyway far from it, but he wasn't in the mood to dispute the point at the moment. He only wanted her not to start crying and he thought maybe he was getting his wish when she squirmed in her blankets and grumbled, "Everyone knows how you are. You'll sleep with anyone, except me apparently."

Mad. Now she was getting mad. As far as he was concerned, mad was good. Anything but weepy worked for him.

She huffed, "I just don't know what got into me that night."

He couldn't resist. "Well, Annabeth, we both know it wasn't me."

She made another huffing sound. "Oh you think you're so funny. And you're not. You're very annoying and you always have been."

"Always?" he taunted.

"Always." She stated angrily

He scoffed at her. "How would you know a thing about me the last four years? Since that night at the Golden Monkey, all I see is the backside of you. I'm not complaining, because you have an amazing ass. But I come in a room and you turn tail and run."

Her face getting red and she screamed, "Shut up Percy and why shouldn't I have? You're a complete tool and you never cared about anything or anyone in your whole life but yourself."

"Which is girl talk for 'You didn't sleep with me,'" he said in his laziest tone.

"You are not the least bit clever seaweed brain, you know that?" She had given him the name a long time ago when he had fallen into the creek when he was younger and had come up with tons of vines and grass coming out of his hair. She continued with it in high school to insult his intelligence compared to hers and just to spite him.

"You don't think so, huh?"

"No, I don't. And it just so happens that I'm glad we never hooked up that night. You're the last person in the world I would ever be sleeping with." He tried not to grin. "No argument there, because I'm not having sex with you no matter how hard you beg me."

"Oh, please. I mean just, simply, _please_." She sat up straight then. Dragging her blankets along with her, she scooted to the edge of the hay bales, as far from him as she could get without swinging her bare feet to the floor. Once there, she snapped, "You don't have to worry. I want nothing to do with you and in case you didn't know, it just so happens that I have a fiancé, thank you very much."

"A fiancé?" That was news to Percy. The information bothered him, a lot and that it bothered him bugged him to no end.

"Yes," she said. "well, sort of."

"Annabeth, get real. You do or you don't."

His name is Leo Valdez and he's an assistant coach at the University of Miami. We met at UCLA and we have been dating for three years."

"Hold on. Answer the question are you engaged?"

She fiddled with her blankets and refused to turn around and look at him. "Well, no, not exactly, but I could be. I promised to give Leo an answer by the end of summer."

He looked back at her. Her hair was a tangle of wild, muddy curls from her dip in the floodwaters. It should have looked like crap but it didn't. It looked like she'd been having crazy good sex with someone and then fallen asleep all loose and soft and satisfied.

And why the hell was he thinking about sex right now? Was he losing his mind? A few hours trapped in a barn with Annabeth Chase could do that to a guy.

He sat up "You're in love with this guy, and you're not going to see him until September?"

"So? What's wrong with that?"

"Well, if you're in love with him, how can you stand to be apart from him? How can he stand to be away from you?"

"You wouldn't understand?"

"Are you in love with him, Annabeth?"

She squared her slim shoulders. "I just told you that you wouldn't understand."

"That's right I wouldn't. If I loved a woman, I'd want her with me. Where I could touch her and be with her and hold her all night long."

Annabeth gasped. She tried to hide the small, sharp sound, but he heard it. "Oh, please. As if you know anything about being in love, Percy."

"I said if I was in love."

"Well, Leo has gone to Australia until the end of the month. He gets only a short summer break before practice begins again and do you know how he's spending his limited free time? At a special sports camp, he's helping Australian children learn about American football. Because he's a good man, a man who cares about other people. That's how he is, that's who is….."

There was more. Lots more. Percy let her heated words wash over him. The point was that she hadn't answered the main question. She hadn't come out and said, "Yes I love Leo Valdez."

He was happy with what she hadn't said. She could rant all night about the how great Leo is while talking trash about him. Percy smiled, settled against the wall and closed his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Annabeth POV

Annabeth felt Percy's presence behind her. She sat on the edge of the pushed-together hay bales and stared out the tack room's window as never-ending rain flowed down the glass.

She finished what she had to say about Leo. "It just so happens that Leo would have liked to have taken me with him, but he was going to be very busy with the Australian children and I had things I could be doing here at home. We have summer school in case you didn't know and I…" her voice trailed off.

Percy hadn't said anything for a while. Had he fallen asleep? She wouldn't put it past him. He was such an annoying, impossible person. Always has been, and no doubt always will be. So why am I starting to feel ashamed of myself?

Annabeth's cheeks were flaming. She tucked her chin down into the scratchy saddle blanket he'd wrapped around her. At least he couldn't see her embarrassment at her own behavior. She gathered her blankets close again. All right, she probably shouldn't have gone off on Percy like that. No matter how humiliating her history with the guy, he'd been there when she desperately needed him. He'd saved her life a few hours ago, at no small risk to himself. Plus, she hadn't really been honest while she was getting in his face just now. She hadn't bothered to mention that she had serious reservations about her and Leo. Leo was the greatest guy in the world and he did want to marry her, but she didn't want to leave her home and he wasn't about to give up his wonderful coaching job. And more important than geography, Leo somehow didn't quite feel like her guy.

Whatever her guy should feel like, she wasn't sure, she just had a certain intuition that Leo wasn't it. And worse than her doubts about her future with an ideal man like Leo, well, there was that longtime thing she'd had for Percy. That night at the bar had put an end to her schoolgirl crush on the town bad boy, but before that night she used to fantasize about him now and then. Well sometimes more than now and then.

She used to wonder what it would be like if Percy were to kiss her. Or do more than kiss her... Not that it mattered now. None of her past silliness over Percy mattered to anyone. It had been a fantasy that was all. He'd never been the least interested in her. He'd made that painfully clear on the night he led her on and then laughed in her face. And really, after all that had happened today, her four year grudge against him for not having sex with her was beginning to seem nothing short of petty. She really needed to let the past go. She needed to be a bigger person than she'd been so far about this. She needed to be a better person.

And she needed to start doing that now. Annabeth cleared her throat. "Um. Percy?"

He shifted a little, "What now, Annabeth?" His voice was scratchy and deep. Lazy. What was it about him he just always made her think of wrinkled sheets and passion. In a purely platonic way, of course.

"I, um I'm sorry, okay?" She hauled her blanket wrapped legs back up on the hay bales and wiggled around until she was facing him again. He lay sprawled under his blankets, his head propped against the wall, his eyes shut, his eyelashes black as coal, his mouth lax and lazy, just like his voice had been. Curls of his impossibly thick black hair hung over his forehead. She clutched her blankets tighter to keep from reaching out and smoothing it back. "I shouldn't have jumped all over you like that. I shouldn't have called you a tool. That was small and mean of me, especially after all you've done for me today."

He didn't say anything for a minute. And he didn't open his eyes. Again, she wondered if he'd dropped off to sleep and she had to resist the urge to reach out and shake him, but then those lips curved upward in a slow smile. "So you don't think that I'm a tool, then?"

"Um. No. No, of course not. I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry. I am."

"and you think maybe you could stop racing off every time you see me coming?"

A fresh wave of embarrassment had her cheeks flaming all over again. But what did it matter? He couldn't see her blush his eyes were shut. Also, she truly wanted to make amends. "Fair enough, I will stop avoiding you."

"Well, all right then. I accept your apology." He patted the empty space beside him. "Stretch out. Try and get some sleep. I'm thinking we're going to be busy when the rain stops and the water goes down."

His words brought reality crashing back down on her. She hung her head. "Oh, Percy, it seems like it's never going to stop. I know my brother's house is already underwater. And if it just keeps rising, what if we-?"

"shh." He reached out and clasped her arm through the thick wool of blanket. His grip was strong. It made her glad that he was here with her, that she wasn't in the barn all alone, waiting out the storm. "Don't go there." His voice was calm and firm. "There's no point."

She lifted her head. His beautiful sea green eyes were open now, steady on her gray eyes. "Tell me that we are going to be okay.

He didn't hesitate. He told her what she needed to hear. "We will. Just watch. Now come here. Come on. . ." He lifted the blanket that covered him. She didn't think twice. She went down into the shelter of his offered arm, resting her head on his shoulder. He was so warm and muscular and safe. He smelled of mud and man, which at that moment she found wonderfully reassuring. He fiddled with the blankets, smoothing them over both of them.

Annabeth smiled to herself. All those crazy teenage dreams she'd had about him. And here she was, damp and dirty, bruised and scratched up lying practically on top of him, grateful beyond measure to share a pile of saddle blankets with him. The world seemed to have gone crazy in the space of a day. But right now in Percy's arms, she felt safe. Protected. She closed her eyes. "I didn't realize until now how tired I am."

He touched her hair, gently. Lightly. "Rest, then."

She started to answer him, but then she found she didn't have the energy to make a sound. Sleep closed over her. She surrendered to it with a grateful sigh.

* * *

When she woke, the light was different.

Sun; it was sun slanting in the window. Also, she was lying on a man. Percy. He had both arms wrapped around her and his cheek against her dirty, snarled hair. Her head was on his shoulder, one arm tucked in against her side.

Her other arm rested on Percy, which was perfectly acceptable, given the circumstances. But the hand that was attached to that arm? That hand was exactly where it shouldn't be.

And where it shouldn't be was hard. Blinking, not quite putting it all together as reality yet, Annabeth lifted her head from his shoulder and blearily squinted at the morning light. Outside, faintly, she could hear birds singing. Without moving her hand away from his very definite, very thick and large hardness, she looked down at him. Because, seriously, could this actually be happening?

It was. And he was awake. He gazed up at her with the strangest, laziest, sexiest expression and said "morning."

She puffed out her cheeks as she blew out a slow breath and then, with great care, she removed her hand from his private parts and whispered, "The sun's out."

He nodded. "The rain's stopped; it stopped hours ago." He was playing along with her, pretending the contact between her hand and his fly had not occurred. Which was great, perfect, wonderful of him.

She backed off him onto her knees, dragging the blankets with her hand and shoved her hair out of her eyes. "You, uh, should have woken me."

"Uh-uh." He reached out and clasped her shoulder, a companionable, reassuring sort of gesture that made tears clog her throat. She swallowed them down. And he said, "You needed your sleep and so did i. I woke up in the middle of the night and it was quiet. I knew the rain had finally stopped. I thought about getting up, but then I just closed my eyes and went back to sleep."

Frank was up, making whining noises, scratching at the door that led outside. "I should let him out." He took his hand from her shoulder. She wished he hadn't, that he would touch her again, hold on tight and never, ever let go. But he didn't. and she pushed the blankets aside, swung her legs over the edge of the hay bales and stood up. Barefoot, she went and pulled the door open. Frank went out and she scolded, "Don't run off, now." She glanced back over her shoulder at Percy.

He was sitting up, bare feet on the floor. He had a case of bed head every bit as bad as hers, and he was kind of hunched over, his elbows on his knees. "Come on," he said gruffly. "Put your boots on," He raked his fingers back through all that thick, messy hair. "We'll see if the water's gone down enough that we can get across the ravine to your parents' house."

They put on their damp socks and boots and pulled open the door that led into the main part of the barn, most of the animals had wandered off, out into the morning sunshine, leaving a whole lot of fresh manure behind. "Are you supposed to be taking care of the place while your parents are out of town?"

She shook her head "No, some neighbors agreed to look after things and feed the stock until the family returned. But I'm guessing they probably all have their own problems about now." At least it was summer and grazing was good. The animals wouldn't starve if they were left alone for a few days.

They ducked back into the tack room and went out through the exterior door. Frank was waiting for them, sitting right outside the door, acting as though he'd actually listened when she told him not to wander off. Annabeth scratched his head and called him a good dog and tried to tell herself that the jittery feeling in her stomach was because she hadn't eaten since lunch the day before not the rising dread at the prospect of how bad the damage was in town.

"It's a beautiful day," she said, tipping her head up again to the clear sky. "You'd almost think yesterday never even happened."

"Hey."

She lowered her gaze to him. Even with his hair sticking up on one side and dirt at his temple, he still looked like every well behaved girl's naught, forbidden fantasy. "Hmm?"

His swirling sea green eyes searched hers. "You okay?" She nodded and forced her mouth to form a smile.

On the other side of the barn, two pigs from the barn were tooting around near the water trough as Annabeth stared across the ravine at her parents' house. The house was untouched by the flood, though the water had gotten halfway up the front walk that was lined with her mother's prized roses. Her dad's minitractor lay on its side at the base of that walk. And a couple of cows had gotten through the fence and were snacking on the vegetable garden in the side yard.

Below, in the ravine, the water had receded, leaving debris strewn down the sides of the hill and up the one on which the house sat. there were tree trunks and lawn chairs down there, boulders and a bicycle, a shade umbrella and any number of other items that looked bizarre, scary and all wrong, soggy and busted up, trailing across the pasture. Annabeth turned her eyes away, toward the road, and saw her Camry. It had drifted past the ditch and lay on its side in the pasture. It was covered in mud.

"I guess I'll be needing a new car." She tried to sound philosophical about it, but knew that she didn't exactly succeed.

"Come on," he said. "Let's go check out the house. Watch where you put your feet in the ravine."

Frank and the two pigs followed them down there. They picked their way with care through all the soggy junk and knotted tree roots. It was going to be quite a job, cleaning up. And she knew that all the other ranches in the valley had to be in a similar state, if not worse. Her family still had a barn and the house, at least. And as far as she could see, there were no animals or people lying broken amid the wreckage down there.

When they reached the house, they went up the front stops. She'd lost her keys. They were probably still stuck in the ignition of her car. But her mom had left a house key where she always did, in the mouth of the ceramic frog by the porch swing.

They went inside. The power and phone were both out, but still, it all looked just as it had the last time she'd been there, the white refrigerator covered with those silly magnets her mother liked, some of them holding reminders to pick up this or that at the store. There were also pictures of her and her brother and a few recipes her mom was meaning to try. In the living room, the remote sat on the table by her dad's recliner and her mother's knitting bag waited in its usual place at the end of the fat blue sofa.

Her childhood home, intact, it seemed a miracle to her right then. And she wanted to cry all over again with a desperate, hot sort of joy.

Percy turned on the water in the kitchen, it ran clear but they both knew that the flood could have caused contamination of any wells in its path.

She said, "We have wells for the animals. But for this house and Malcolm's place, we have a water tank that taps an underground spring higher up on this hill. The floodwaters wouldn't have reached that far. So the water here, in the house, is safe."

"That's good. A lot of wells are going to need disinfecting. Any source of clean water is great news."

She nodded. "And in town they get water from above the falls. So they should be all right, too, shouldn't they, at least on the north side of the creek?" He shrugged. She knew what he was thinking. Who could say what they would find in town, and what about his family's place? "I know you prably want to head over to the Double J."

"Yeah, but let's check out your brother's house first, and then see about getting something to eat."

Malcolm's house. She realized she didn't want to go there, but she did it anyway. And she was glad, again, for Percy's presence at her side. The house was locked up. They looked in the windows. It was bad. The waterline went three feet up the walls, but the moisture had wicked higher in ugly, muddy spikes. Malcolm's furniture was beyond saving, soggy and stained, the stuffing popping out.

"Can we get to the propane tank?" Percy asked. "Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to a possible gas leak." She showed him the way. They were able to turn it off from outside. Then he said, "Come on. There's nothing more we can do here right now."

They went back to her parents' house and found plenty to eat in the pantry. She filled Frank's food bowl and the hungry dog quickly emptied it. After the meal, she took the perishables out of the fridge and put them in a bucket in the front yard. The two pigs went right to work on the treat.

It was still pretty early, a little after seven. Percy suggested they make use of the safe water source and take showers before they left. There was just no way to guess the next time they'd have a chance to clean up a little. Like Malcolm's house, the tank was heated by propane, so they even had hot water.

Annabeth chose from some of her own old clothes that her mom had stored for her in a box under the stairs. She got clean jeans, a fresh shirt and a pair of worn but sturdy work boots to wear. For Percy, she found an ancient purple shirt that belonged to her dad, a pair of her dad's boots that were a pretty decent fit, and some trusty overalls. She also gave him a towel, a toothbrush, shaving cream and a disposable razor. He took the guest bathroom, and she took the master bathroom. While undressing she couldn't help but think about the possibly naked Percy in the guest bathroom. . .


	4. Chapter 4

Annabeth POV

After taking a quick shower she stood in front of the bathroom mirror wrapped in one of her mother's favorite owl patterned towels, combing the tangles out of her wet hair, she couldn't help but think that Percy was just down the hall in the other bathroom, possibly naked.

Or if he wasn't by now, he had been a few minutes ago. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and glared at her own reflection. "Get your mind off Percy naked," she told her steamy image in an angry whisper. "Seriously. You should get help, Annabeth Chase."

And that struck her as funny, for some reason. The idea that she needed counseling over Percy Jackson. She laughed. And then she pulled herself together and pinned her still wet hair into a knot at the back of her head.

A few minutes later, they were out in the kitchen again, deciding what to take with them when they left. She didn't tell him so, but he looked sexy even in overalls. He'd used the razor she'd given him and his dark stubble was gone, his hair still wet, but minus the dried mud from the flood.

Before they left, they filled a couple of gallon-sized plastic containers with water. She stuffed a backpack with a few personal items. Her mom had a key to Annabeth's house in town and she took that, since her was lost somewhere in her mud-filled car. She also grabbed a leash and a plastic container of food for Frank. She would have grabbed her dad's first aid kit, but Percy said he had one in his truck.

"You want to wade out to your car?" Percy asked her. "See if maybe we can find your purse or your keys?"

It was way out there in the middle of that muddy field. And it didn't look promising to her. "We just got dry boots," she reminded him. "Let it go."

Percy didn't argue. She figured he was probably anxious to get to the Double J.

They locked up the house again and headed for his truck, which waited at the top of the road where he'd left it. Frank hopped in the back and they climbed in the cab.

His cell was stuck in one of the cup holders. He tried it. "Still no signal."

Annabeth hooked her seat belt. He started the engine, pulled a U-turn and off they went.

It took them over an hour to get to the Double J, the roads were washed out in several places and they had to find a way around the trouble spots. There was soggy, broken items strewn randomly wherever the water had risen not to mention swamped, abandoned vehicles. Annabeth tried to take heart that they were all only things but things often made up the whole of people's lives.

Percy played the radio for news. Roads and bridges were out everywhere. Any number of small towns on the western side of the state had sustained serious damage. A third of the state had been designated a disaster area and there were constant warnings about staying off the roads as much as possible, about exercising caution of flooded buildings, about the danger of snakes and the hazards of rats and steering clear of downed power lines.

At the Double J, all the buildings were above the waterline and undamaged, but there would still be one heck of a cleanup to deal with. The hands who'd been taking care of the place were there and safe. Annabeth told them how to get into her parents' house to get fresh water for the next day or so, until they could disinfect the wells. They said they would check the stock for her as soon as they'd dealt with the animals on the Double J.

Once Percy seemed satisfied that the hands had things under control, he said, "We should get going, go on into town."

She caught his arm before they got in the cab.

He stopped and turned to look at her. "Yeah?" His skin was so warm under her hand. Smooth flesh, hard muscles beneath. She felt suddenly shy with him and jerked her hand away. He frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I, well, I was just thinking that I'll bet you really want to go back up the mountain to check on things at your place. You could just drop me off when we get to the next street and I can hitch a ride in."

He stuck his fists into the front pockets of her dad's overalls and tipped his head to the side. "What the hell, Annabeth? I'm not leaving you alone on the street."

His words warmed her, but still she really did need to stop taking advantage of his kindness to her.

Kindness.

Incredible, she'd been so busy judging him as a heartless, undisciplined sex maniac for all these years, she'd never had a clue what a softy he really was. She shook her head. "Oh, come on now. We grew up here. We both know I'll be perfectly safe."

"We don't know what's going on since last night, and I don't want you wandering around alone."

"Percy, I would hardly wander. And I know everyone in town, so I won't by any stretch of the imagination be alone."

"I'm coming with you. I want to be with you when you check on your house." He said the words in a cautious tone. They both knew where her house was: directly in the path of the water. She was already resigned to the fact that it had to be flooded and was hoping that at least some of her clothing and furniture might be salvageable.

"Honestly, I can handle it. I was pretty shell-shocked yesterday, I know. But I'm over that. I'm ready to face whatever comes. You don't have to worry about me."

He was scowling now, "Why are you trying to get rid of me?"

She fell back a step, "I'm not. I just thought. . ."

He caught her arm with his calloused hand. It felt so good, his touch. And his grip was so strong but gentile. "What?" he demanded. "You thought what?"

She looked up at him, at his swirling sea green eyes and those lips that seemed like they were made for kissing a woman and she wondered what he would do if she kissed him. The idea made her feel both embarrassed and giddy. She almost giggled.

"Annabeth," he demanded. "What is going on with you all of a sudden?"

Now she was thinking about earlier that morning. About waking up with her hand where it shouldn't have been about how he'd been turned on and how that turned her on too.

_Get real, Annabeth. _Just because he became aroused didn't mean he was dying to have sex with her in particular. It was simple biology, and she needed to remember that.

And if he wanted to keep on being kind to her, well, maybe she'd just let him. Maybe she'd just go right on taking advantage of Percy Jackson and enjoying every minute of it. "Nothing is 'going on' with me. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't taking advantage of you."

"You're not."

"So. . . you don't mind going into town, then?"

"It's not about minding. It's what I planned to do. People will need help. They'd need every able bodied man."

"And woman," she reminded him.

"Right." He had the good sense to agree.

She pressed her lips together to keep from grinning up at him like some addled fool and said, "Well, fair enough, then. I was just, um, checking."

He seemed to realize suddenly that he was gripping her arm and let go. "Checking." Now he looked suspicious.

She put on her most innocent expression. "uh-huh. Nothing wrong with checking, making sure you're okay with what's going on."

"If I'm not okay, you'll know it."

"Well, then, I'll stop checking."

"Good, can we go now?"

She had that silly urge to grin again. Must be the stress of all she'd been through since yesterday. Yeah. Right. That must be it.

The trip into town was as booby trapped with obstacles as the ride to the Double J had been. There was the smell of smoke in the air. It wasn't just from wood fires in stoves and fireplaces, they heard the sirens and saw the smoke in the distance. On the south side of town, some homes had caught fire. Annabeth prayed her house wasn't one of them and then she put her house out of her mind and prayed that no lives were endangered by the fires.

Other travelers were on the road by then, most of whom they recognized. Everyone seemed to have somewhere important to go. People waved and honked, but nobody pulled over to talk about what they'd been through or exchange information about the disaster. Percy had the radio on. All the way there, they listened to advice on how to deal with the aftermath of the Great Independence Day Flood.

When they finally got to Hills Street on the southeastern edge of town, they had to circle around and take other roads farther east and then work their way back in. it was nothing but mud, pools of water, swamped, abandoned vehicles and way to much debris south of the creek. The buildings they saw before they turned east were still standing, but bore the telltale signs of water damage within.

The water level was way down from flood stage and the bridge appeared intact. Percy pulled the pickup to the shoulder before they crossed it. They both got out to take a look, to make sure that crossing would be safe. Frank jumped out to follow them.

But then a couple of pickups came rolling across from the town side. Behind the wheel of the second truck was a rancher the both recognized, Apollo Creed. Apollo owned a nice little spread at the southwestern edge of the valley and raised some of the best cows in the entire state.

He pulled to a stop. "Annabeth, Percy, I see you're both in one piece and still breathing. Could be worse, eh? I'm headin' back to my place. We still got a house, but we lost a barn and some sheds. Haven't started counting steers yet. I just stopped in at Hermes's to try and get a few supplies to tide us over." Hermes's General Store was a town landmark. The store sold everything from basic foodstuffs to farm supplies, hardware and clothing. "shelves are already looking' pretty bare in there."

Percy asked, "How bad is it?"

"In town? Power's out and so are all the phones. North of the creek is okay, from what I heard. No flooding, the water supply unaffected. South, is not looking so good. Commercial Street Bridge is washed out. There's damage to the Main Street Bridge. People are bypassing it. We still got this bridge though." He pointed a thumb back over his shoulder. "I guess we had some luck." It was pretty much what she and Percy had thought it would be, but somehow, to hear Apollo confirm their suspicions made it all the more horribly real. "And then there's what happened to Zeus." Zeus, Ezekiel Freeman, was the mayor.

"What?" Annabeth demanded.

"Tree fell on that old SUV of his. So happened he was in the SUV at the time."

Annabeth respected Mayor Zeus. He was a born leader, a real booster of education and had planned and promoted several school related fund raisings events. "Was he hurt?"

"The tree fell on the hood. Not a scratch on him." Apollo resettled his hat on his head and Annabeth felt relief. But then Apollo added, "must have scared the shit right of him. He had a heart attack."

Annabeth put her hand over her mouth. "Oh, no..."

"Oh, yeah. It was over real quick for Mayor Zeus."

"Over?" Annabeth's hear sank. "You mean he's...?"

Apollo nodded. An SUV and another pickup came across the bridge. The occupants waved as they drove by. Apollo said somberly, "They took him to Hades's house. Hades pronounced him DOA." Hades, Hector Gomez, was a doctor that ran the town clinic. "Clinic's flooded, in case you were wondering."

Annabeth and Percy exchanged grim glances. They weren't surprised. The clinic was south of Main. "Hades and a couple of his neighbors waded in there and saved what equipment and supplies they could first thing this morning. Luckily, hades had a lot of his medical stuff stored on the second floor and the water didn't make it that high. He's set up an emergency clinic at his house, for now."

"They got the volunteer fire guys out on search and resuce?" Percy asked

Apollo shrugged. "Can't say. I haven't heard of anybody dead, hurt too bad or stranded except for Mayor Zues, but I did hear that some count trucks brought in salvage and rescue equipment and sandbags yesterday before the levee broke. This morning, the town council put together an emergency crew to patch up the places where the water got through. So that's taken care of for now. And you can just have a look at the creek. Water level's back to normal range."

Percy gave a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, one good thing about breaks in the levee. They tend to bring the water level way down."

"That they do," Apollo concurred. "Plus, there's no rain in the forecast for at least the next week. So we're unlikely to have a repeat of what happened yesterday oh, and the town council called a meeting at noon in the town hall to talk cleanup and such. Wish I could be there, but I got way too much cleanup of my own out at my place and I need to get after it. Bought the bleach I needed, at least. I can disinfect my well." Apollo tipped his hat.

"you stay safe and take it slow on the road, Apollo." Percy said.

"Will do." The rancher rolled on by.

Percy put his arm around her, "You're looking kind of stricken, Annabeth"

She leaned into him, because she could. She needed someone to lean on at that moment. And Percy was so solid. So warm. So very much alive. "I'd been letting myself hope that at least no one had died and I really liked Mayor Zeus."

"I hear you. The mayor was a good man and this town could sure use him right about now." He pulled her a little closer in the shelter of his arm and turned them both back to the pickup, Frank at their heels. The dog jumped in back again and they got in the cab.

As they drove across the bridge, Annabeth tried not to dread what might be waiting for them on the other side.


	5. Chapter 5

Annabeth's POV

It didn't look so bad, Annabeth told herself as they drove in town. In fact, on the northern edge of town, things seemed almost normal. Annabeth spotted a couple of downed trees and some flattened fences, but nothing like the devastation they'd witnessed coming in.

When they turned onto Main Street they saw that Hermes store parking lot was packed, people going in and coming out mostly empty handed. She wasn't surprised. It wouldn't take long to clear out the shelves of emergency supplies if everyone in town and most of the ranchers showed up all at once and grabbed whatever they could fit in a cart.

The Community Church had its doors wide open. People sat on the steps there or stood out under the trees in front. Most of them look confused and lost.

"Shouldn't the Red Cross be showing up any minute?" she asked hopefully. "And what about FEMA and the National Guard?"

Percy grunted. "With a lot of the state in this condition, the phones out and the roads blocked, we'll be real lucky if a few supply trucks get to us in the next day or two." And then he swore low. "isn't that the mayor's SUV?" The old brown 4x4 was half in, half out of the town hall parking lot. It had definitely come out the loser in the encounter with the elm tree. The tree lay square across what was left of the hood. The driver's door gaped open. A couple of boys in their early teens were peering in the windows.

"That's just too sad," Annabeth said low. "You'd think they'd want it off the street."

"Damn right." Percy muttered. "A sight like that is not encouraging." He hit the brake and then swung a U-turn. He shouted out the window at the two boys. "Hey, you two get over here."

Both boys froze. They wore guilty expressions, but then they put on their best tough guy scowls and sauntered to Percy's side of the truck. They were the older brothers of a couple of Annabeth's former students and when they spotted her in the passenger seat, they dropped some of the attitude and mumbled in unison, "Hello, Ms. Chase."

She gave them both a nod.

One of them raked his shaggy hair off his forehead and met Percy's eyes. "Yeah?"

As he'd already done several times in the past eighteen hours or so, Percy surprised her. He knew their names. "Adam. Vince. Show a little respect, huh?"

Adam, who was fourteen if Annabeth remembered correctly, cleared his throat. "We are, Mr. Jackson." Mr. Jackson. So strange to hear anybody call the young and wild Percy mister. But then again, well, the Jacksons were pillars of the community. Some of that probably rubbed off, even on the family bad boy especially to a couple of impressionable teenagers.

Vince, who was thirteen, added, "We were just, you know..."

Percy leaned out the window and said "You two could make yourselves useful, head on up to the garage. See if Hephaestus has a tow truck he can spare." Hephaestus had owned and run the garage and gas station for as long as Annabeth could remember. "Tell him the mayor's SUV is still sitting in the middle of Main Street with a tree trunk buried in its hood and lots of folks would appreciate it if he could tow it away."

And then Adam said, "Yeah, we could do that."

"You want me to take you up there?"

"Naw," said Vince, puffing out his chest. "We can handle it."

"Good enough, thanks boys, and tell Hephaestus he probably ought to bring a chain saw for that tree."

"We will." The two took off up Main at a sprint.

"That was well done," Annabeth said, and didn't even bother to try and hide the admiration in her voice.

Percy replied, "Maybe, but do you think they'll make it happen?"

"You know, I kind of do. They're good kids, and this is a way for them to help. And you know Hephaestus."

"Yes, I do. Hephaestus respected Zeus and he won't like it that the car Zeus died in is sitting on Main with the hood smashed in for everyone to stare and point at."

She glanced toward the dashboard clock. It was 10:45 a.m. "so what do we do now?"

"I was thinking we could go and see how your house made out."

She glanced over her shoulder, out the back window, past a happily panting Frank, at the Main Street Bridge. Someone had put a row of orange traffic cones in front of it to warn people off trying to use it. And one of her brother's deputies was standing, arms folded, in front of the pedestrian walk that spanned on side. "It doesn't look like they're letting people cross the bridge."

Percy glanced over his shoulder, too. "We could try heading back, then going on foot along the top of the levee until we get to your street."

"That could be dangerous. I mean, with the breaks in the levee and all. We would have to go carefully, and we don't know what we'll find if we manage to get to my house. It could take hours and we would miss the noon meeting Apollo mentioned. I do think we should go to that."

Percy faced front again, his big shoulders slumping, and stared broodingly out the windshield back the way they had come. "You know who'll be running that meeting now that Zeus is gone, don't you?"

She did. "Luke Castellan." Luke was in his mid-twenties, a member of the town council. Everyone expected him to be mayor himself someday. He and Percy had never liked each other. Luke was as handsome and dynamic as Percy was brooding and magnetic. Percy had always been a rebel and Luke considered himself a community leader.

Rumor had it that five or six years back, Luke's girlfriend, Rachel, had cheated on him with Percy. Word was Rachel had told Percy that she and Luke were through. But apparently, she'd failed to inform Luke of that fact. There'd been a fight, a nasty one, between the two men that left both of them in the hospital. Percy with a broken hand and Luke with a couple of cracked ribs and broken nose. After that, the two had hated each other more than ever.

Plus, there was the old rivalry between their two families. Luke was a Castellan to the core. The Castellans not only owned the general store, they were also as influential in the community as the Jackson's. And for as long as anyone could remember, Castellans and Jacksons had been at odds. Annabeth didn't really know the origin of the feud, but it seemed to be bred in the bone now between the town's two most important families. The Jacksons didn't think much of Castellans. And the Castellans returned the favor.

She spoke gently, but with firmness. "I really think it's important that everyone who can possibly be there attends that meeting."

He put his arm along the back of the seat and touched her shoulder, a gentle brush of a touch. She felt that touch acutely. His sea colored eyes sought hers and held them. "So you want to go to the meeting first and then decide what to do about getting to your place?"

She smiled at him. "I do. Yes." Right then, a tow truck came rumbling toward them down the street. Percy got out to give Hephaestus a hand.

* * *

Percy POV

At ten past two that afternoon the town hall meeting was still going on.

Percy sat next to Annabeth and wished he was anywhere but there. For almost two hours now they had all sat here and listened to people talk and give suggestions, none of which were what the town needed right now. He was getting hungry and he figured the rest of the crowd were probably feeling the same. The big multipurpose room was packed causing the temperature in the room to spike to uncomfortable levels. They had a generator for the lights, but there was no air conditioning. As a rule, it never got hot in town, but with all the bodies packed in that room, it was hot now.

Tired, frightened, stressed out townspeople had taken every chair. More people stood at the back or along the side walls. There were children, too. People didn't want to let their kids out of their sight at a time like this. And kids got restless when forced to sit or stand in one place for too long.

Babies were wailing and small voices kept asking, "Dad, when can we go?" and " Mom, is this over yet?"

There were a lot of big talkers in town and every one of them was insisting on being heard. Plus, that jerk Luke sat up there on the hall stage with the other useless members of the council and kept banging the mayor's big hand carved oak gavel for order.

All right, it was true. A lot of people thought the world of Luke. And maybe, if Percy were being fair about it, he'd admit that Luke had a few good qualities. However, when it came to most Castellans, and Luke in particular, Percy just plain didn't feel like being fair.

Luke had the council in his pocket, naturally. They all looked at him like he was wearing a damn halo or something, like he was the one sent down from heaven to single handedly fix everything that had gone completely wrong since the day before.

"Everyone, your attention!" Luke boomed in that smooth tone that made people think he knew what he was talking about. "We all have to work together here. As I've said before, though phone, internet, and TV are temporarily out of commission we have the radio system at the sheriff's office and we are in communication with the state office of Disaster and Emergency Services. They are well aware of what is going on in town and the valley, but unfortunately the same is happening in far too many other communities in the area. The good news is that everything is under control and moving along."

Somebody in the crowd made a rude noise.

Luke banged the gavel some more. "If we could all just be patient for a little bit longer, we will get these teams firmed up, so we can all get going on the cleanup right away."

Percy knew he should keep his mouth shut. His plan had been to get through the meeting, help Annabeth deal with the probable ruin of her home and then pitch in wherever he was needed, but Luke and the council had their priorities turned around. And while there were plenty of people willing to go on and on about the difficulty of the situation and how much they wanted to help, nobody else seemed ready to tell the council they were putting the cart before the horse.

He got to his feet. Beside him, Annabeth was startled and looked up at him, wide eyed. She did amuse him, the way she always looked so worried about what he might do next. He sent her a glance that he meant to be reassuring. Her eyes only got wider. So much for soothing her. He faced front and waded in.

"I'm sorry, nobody's speaking up about the real issue here and so I suppose I'm going to have to be the one. Luke, cleanup is not the issue yet," he said good and loud. "First, we need to get teams into the flooded areas and see who needs help there. We need search and rescue and we needed it hours ago."

A chorus of agreement rose from the crowd, apparently others thought there should be a rescue effort as well. It was only that no one had been willing to stand up and say it out loud.

Luke banged his gavel and looked at Percy with disgust, and anger. "Order please, everyone. I already explained. We have the volunteer firefighters out searching for trapped or injured survivors."

"One team, you're saying? With how many men on it?"

Luke didn't answer either question. Instead, he went right on with his argument. "Those men are trained for this and know what they're doing. We don't think it's a big problem. No one has reported anyone missing."

"And how are you going to know if someone's missing?" Percy demanded. "People can't call. The phones are out. There can't be more than a third of the people in the valley here at this meeting or hanging around Main Street. Where are the rest of them? Trying to clean up what's theirs? Or trapped on the upper floors of their houses, wondering why no one's come looking for them?"

"But we are looking, and I honestly do not believe. . ."

Percy didn't even let him get started. "And you didn't answer my first question. How many men are out on search and rescue, Luke?"

Others spoke up then. "Yeah! How many?" someone demanded

"Not enough, that's how many!" answered another.

Luke's face had gone a deep shade of red. "People, please. Order!"

Percy stuck his hands into the pockets of his overalls and waited for Luke to stop pounding the gavel. Once he did, Percy answered the question himself. "I'm guessing about nine, nine men to cover the whole of this town and the valley. Have I got that right?"

"Nine strong, able men who are trained in effective search and rescue," Luke insisted, his face even redder than before.

Percy kept after him, "It doesn't matter how good they are. Nine men are not enough. We need to put every able bodied adult on the search until we've made a circuit of all the homes and ranches in town and in the valley. It shouldn't take more than the rest of today and tomorrow, if we get a move on. After that, we can change our focus to salvage and cleanup."

Down the row from him and Annabeth, one of the Castellan men called out, "Sit down and shut up, why don't you, Jackson? Let the men that know what they're doing make the decisions here."

"Yeah," said another voice. "We don't need the likes of _you_ tellin' us what to do first."

And that was when Annabeth shot to her feet beside him. At first, Percy thought she would grab his arm and beg him to stay out of it. But it turned out he'd misjudged her, again. "I feel I must add my voice to Percy's," she said in that prim schoolmarm way of hers that never failed to get him kind of hot. "We have no idea how many people might be trapped in their homes or their barns. There are bound to be collapsed buildings. People could be buried in the rubble, praying they'll be rescued before it's too late. We've already lost the mayor."

"Bless his soul," said a woman's voice.

"Amen," said another.

Annabeth wasn't finished. "Search and rescue is the first job. And we need to give it everything. We can't afford to lose one more precious life.

And Percy added his voice to hers, "We've got to save our people before we worry about your property."

The room erupted in whistles and applause. People shouted, "By golly, he's right!" and "Search and rescue!" and "Percy's said it!" and "Listen to the schoolteacher!"

By the time the clapping finally stopped, even Luke had seen the writing on the wall. He did what he had to do and went along. "The council, as always, seeks to understand and take action according to the wishes of our citizens. We will call in the nine trained men and reassign them as team leaders."

Luke was still talking. "For today and tomorrow and as long as is needed those nine firefighters will head the teams in our search and rescue efforts. Volunteers, seek out a leader. Hestia?"

Hestia, the council member to Luke's right, stood, picked up a pointer and smacked it against the map of the county that hung behind the council table. The map had already been divided into sections for the proposed cleanup teams. "Team one, section one and so on," Hestia announced. "We've been fortunate in that rubber boots, heavy rubber gloves and necessary tools have already been trucked in and will be provided to each of you. Please wear the boots and gloves at all times when searching in mud or standing water. Be on careful lookout for vermin of all persuasions. Floods bring out the rats and displace the snakes. Thank you, Luke." With a nod, she set down the pointer and took her seat again.

Luke wrapped it up. "Getting around in flood areas isn't easy, but we are able to truck in supplies from other towns for those in need. The Ladies of Artemis of the Community Church has set out a meal on the church lawn while we've been busy with our meeting here. If everyone will file outside in an orderly manner, Sister Artemis will lead us in a prayer, after which we will share a late lunch. By then, your team leaders will have returned and the search for missing survivors can commence."


	6. Chapter 6

Percy

The rest of the day was spent helping with search and rescue efforts. Percy and Annabeth, stuck by one another's side as they searched the homes and ranches in the valley. By the time the sun began to set on the horrific day, they were exhausted but felt lucky that so far most of the citizens that lived in the valley were safe and accounted for. There were several rescues of people stuck on the second floors of their homes or in loft spaces of their barns. There would still need to be search and rescue attempts tomorrow as not everyone has been found, but the night brings too much danger to help anyone. Further efforts would have to wait until morning.

Percy, exhausted and starving, moves to find Annabeth talking with a woman and her young child. Realizing that this must be one of Annabeth's students, he hangs back and listens at Annabeth tells her where she and the little one can go and find shelter for the night. City hall and the school have both opened their doors to provide shelter and a safe place for displaced citizens to sleep, eat, and collect their thoughts.

When the woman hugs Annabeth and walks away, Percy moves over to Annabeth and places his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, I wanted to thank you for earlier," he tells her.

"What did I do?" she asks, seemingly confused.

"For standing up and supporting me during that meeting. It could have easily gotten bad with the Castellans arguing against me. If it weren't for you, we may never have gotten the proper search and rescue going."

He's not sure where these feelings are coming from, but he feels real admiration and appreciation toward the woman standing before him.

"Percy, you were right the whole time. I would have been stupid not to support you. This whole time you have had nothing but the good of others on your mind, driving you. You've done everything possible to help as many people as you could, even people that weren't so receptive to your help in the first place." She smiles warmly at him and he feels a twinge of nervousness in his gut.

He hasn't spent this much time with her since they were children. He likes the way her smile makes his heart flutter and how he feels that her eyes can see deep within him, past all of the bullshit and artificial crap he lets people believe about him. He takes a deep breath and looks into her eyes for a moment longer before pulling himself out of his thoughts.

"I was going to head up the mountain to my house. You are welcome to come with me."

"I'll be fine, Percy. You don't have to worry about me anymore," she tells him. "Besides, I'm sure you'd like to be rid of the burden of me hanging around you all of the time."

Percy scowls at her, why can't she see that she's no burden, not to him. "Annabeth, stop it. I am not leaving you here to sleep in a gym or some random classroom. You'll come to my house and get a proper shower and eat a proper meal. I have plenty of room and I'm even sure I have some clothes there that would fit you."

Annabeth scowls at him, "I am not wearing some random woman's clothes that were randomly left at your house. I'll be fine."

Percy draws in a deep breath and tries desperately not to get angry at her assumption. "I don't have random clothes from women. I have clothes that belong to my mother that are there because she stays at my house sometimes. Contrary to popular belief, Annabeth, I'm not quite the jerk people like to make me out to be."

Annabeth gives him a conflicted look, "What about the thing with Luke and Rachel and you?"

"That was a misunderstanding, that's all. She was my friend and nothing more. She came to me, crying that Luke had hurt her. She said they had broken up for the last time. She cried on my shoulder and looked to me, as her friend, for comfort. I never slept with her. We did sleep in the same bed, fully clothed, but we never had sex. Luke assumed we did upon finding her at my house, in my bed. He wouldn't listen to either of us."

"Then why did she leave town?"

"Because, she couldn't stand being near him anymore. Luke seems to be a great guy to everyone, but he's possessive, as evident by his behavior in the meeting. If someone disagrees with him, he condemns them and doesn't listen to reason unless forced."

Annabeth shook her head. Percy desperately hoped that she could see that he's not quite the bad guy she always assumed.

"So how about it? A warm shower, food, and bed or the cold ground of the gym and the mass produced food of the school cafeteria?"

Annabeth looked at him as though she's contemplating his offer. Percy didn't know how this was going to play out, but he would like the opportunity to spend more time with her.

"I'll come along. A warm bed sounds nice."

Percy smiles, takes her arm, and guides her toward his truck with Frank trotting just behind.

* * *

Annabeth

Annabeth doesn't know how she's feeling about this all right now. She went from thinking that Percy was the worst guy on the planet to thinking he's not as bad as she had imagined.

They made their way slowly up the narrow mountain road, headed toward his house. The road strewn with debris from the storm. Washouts from mountain streams pushed mud and muck across the road and into the path of any travelers.

"It's a damn good thing I have four wheel drive, otherwise we wouldn't ever be able to get up to my house," Percy comments. It's clear that he's not worried about getting through.

When they arrived at his house, Annabeth is shocked at how nice it is. The outside is perfectly manicured and she could see what was probably once flowerbeds full of flowers before the rains came. His house is so high up on the mountain that there would have been little chance for significant flooding. Luckily all of the trees surrounding the property seemed to have held their ground and the damage from the rains and winds seems to be at a minimum.

Percy led Annabeth into his house and toward the back area where the bedrooms sat. "This can be your room for tonight. That closet should have clothes from my mother that will hopefully fit you well enough for now. There's a shower right here," he said gesturing to a door across the hall from where she stood. "There's soap, shampoo, and conditioner in the closet along with new tooth brushes, tooth paste, and razors if you need."

Annabeth smiled and nodded to the man standing before her. He pointed to another door and spoke again, "This is my room. If you need anything, let me know. I'm going to go get cleaned up."

He turned and started to walk to his door when Annabeth grabbed his arm and made him turn. She was shocked by her gesture. She didn't know what she was going to say, but for some reason she didn't want him to go just yet. She quickly recovered her shock when her eyes met his, "Thank you Percy, for everything."

He smiled at her, a warm smile that made her heart race, "Your welcome, Annabeth."

He entered his room and closed the door behind him. She stood in that spot for a moment longer, staring at the door that he just disappeared behind. She didn't understand the feelings that she was having right now. It wasn't a good idea for her to feel this way. Maybe he wasn't quite the player she thought, but some of that must have been true or the rumors never would have started in the first place.

She moved herself into the room that he designated as hers for the night. The clothes he said were in here were a little old for her, but she managed to find a pair of leggings and a t-shirt that would suffice for now. She slipped across the hall to the bathroom and couldn't help but to glance toward his clothed door. For the second time today she acknowledged that just behind a door Percy Jackson was probably naked and for the second time that thought made her nervous and giddy at the same time. She really shouldn't be thinking like this right now. She has someone. Leo is a great guy who wants to marry her and make a life with her. So what is it about Percy that draws her to him?

She moves into the bathroom and starts the shower. Percy being up on the mountain has had no contamination of his water and his generators are all in perfect working order and powering his house like normal. Suddenly the inconvenience of living on a mountain so far away from others didn't seem like such a burden.

After their showers, Annabeth found Percy in the kitchen preparing some food for them. She'd never imagined he would be able to cook too. He was just so full of surprises. She sat down on one of the stools that lined the counter and watched as he moved effortlessly around the kitchen.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked.

"Nope, I'm good."

"I never expected you to know how to cook," she said matter-of-factly.

"What, you think you get this muscular and buff without ever eating or by eating fast food?" he scoffed.

Annabeth smirked at his words. "No you just become more arrogant is all."

He scowled at her. "There's a lot you don't know about me Annabeth. You acted like you knew me, but you never really did. There were reasons for most everything I've done."

"Such as," she challenged.

* * *

Percy POV

He shook his head, unwilling to start this conversation with her. He didn't want to go there anymore. He didn't want to have to explain his intentions or why he did the things he did, especially when it came to her.

He looked at her and for one brief moment he thought she might have just dropped the whole thing, but he should have known better. He should have known that she would never let him out of explaining himself.

"So what reasons did you have for the way you treated me that night?" she asked.

He kept quiet for a long time. He tried to continue to cook and simply focus on that, but he knew she was sitting patiently waiting for him to explain himself.

"Annabeth, It just wasn't the right time is all. You had just broken up with your boyfriend."

"But you flirted with me. You danced with me..."

"I flirted with a lot of girls, I danced with a lot of girls."

"Not that night you didn't," she challenged. He knew she was not going to let this go.

"Annabeth, just drop it and let's have a nice dinner."

She sighed and didn't say a word for a long time. But Percy knew this wasn't over. Annabeth wasn't the kind of girl to drop anything. She wouldn't be happy until she knew exactly what happened. But was he ready to let her know that?

Silence ruled until Percy was finished cooking and the plates were made. He handed her a plate filled with a steak, baked potato, and corn on the cob. He gathered his plate that was filled with the same items and he moved into the seat next to hers. They ate in silence for a while, but as soon as their plates were clear, Annabeth's questioning began again.

"So, why did you flirt with me then blow me off?"

"Annabeth, please..."

"Percy, please. I need to know."

"I liked you, alright?" he said abruptly. "I liked you and didn't want to be some rebound or one night stand with you Annabeth. I didn't want that, not with you." He stood and walked from the kitchen toward his room. "I'm going to be. Good night Annabeth."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Annabeth POV

Annabeth stood in the kitchen, staring toward the now empty doorway. To say she was dumbfounded would have been an understatement. She was at a complete loss for what she was supposed to be feeling right now. Anger, longing, and sadness wrestle in her mind for dominance. Anger at herself for not seeing how her throwing herself at him might have affected him, anger at him for never saying anything and allowing her to act the way she did toward him for so long. Longing for another chance, and sadness that she hurt him and that she lost her chance with him. She pushed him and forced him to tell her how he felt about her, she made him explode when all she had to do was stop. She was too curious, too interested in the truth and she never stopped to ask herself what the cost of the truth would be.

She quietly busied herself cleaning the dishes from dinner. She had to do something to keep herself busy or she would explode in a torrent of tears and sorrow and she couldn't have that. She couldn't allow herself to lose her self-control now. Besides what does it matter, he obviously didn't feel that way about her anymore. That was four years ago. He couldn't feel that way, not now so long after that night. Not after she basically called him horrible names and made him feel as though he was nothing more than a man-whore. Besides, she had an almost fiancé. Leo wanted to marry her, he wanted to spend his life with her. Why couldn't she just be happy with Leo Valdez?

Annabeth finished the dishes before she decided to go outside for some fresh air. The evening sky was full of more stars than she's seen in a long time. It's been a long time since she was this far away from the lights of their town. Up here on this mountain, she feels like she's closer to the heavens. It's beautiful here. The house sits on about five acres of cleared land. There are a few animals around, a couple cows, horses, a pig, and three dogs. There's a small barn, a large shed, and a garage on the property. Other than those buildings, he has a wooden swing on the edge of the woods that looks out into the trees, a small pond with a waterfall, and a small garden that was probably destroyed by the torrential rains of yesterday.

She almost doesn't believe that a man lives in this place alone. It's just so beautiful. She walks around the grounds taking in all there is to see. The shed houses a lawn tractor, a normal lawn mower, and some other lawn care and gardening items, the barn has spaces for the animals, but there is an attached building in the back that has all of the equipment that he would need to manufacture his saddles that he makes. Inside of the garage is his truck and an antique car that looks as though it was only recently rebuilt.

She moves from the buildings to where the swing sits looking out into the pitch black forest. The light from the moon and the stars don't penetrate the dense canopy that the trees provide. She can hear the sounds of wildlife creeping through the underbrush or moving from tree limb to tree limb. Their sounds and the swinging of the bench swing calm and relax her as she sits and thinks about the past two days. It all has been so overwhelming and so incredibly exhausting that she's surprised she even has the energy or desire to keep her eyes open.

After some time alone, thinking she comes to two conclusions, first she has to try to make amends with Percy, and second she really needs to decide what exactly what she wants out of her life. She needs to give Leo an answer when he returns from Australia in just weeks from now. Does she want to move to Miami and try to find a teaching job there? Does she love him enough to leave her family, friends, and her life here in Virginia to start a new life there?

* * *

Percy POV

Percy lies on his bed trying to sort through what just happened. He told her that he had feelings for her but what he's not completely sure about are his feelings now. He told her things he promised himself he would never say once he realized she had a fiancé. But now it was too late. But she mustn't know what his feelings are for her now, he's not even sure. She's beautiful, that's nothing that could be argued. She's brilliant and loving and everything that he's ever wanted in a woman, but she's also insufferable and frustrating and completely exhausting.

He continued to lie on his bed staring up at the dark ceiling listening to the sounds of night. But he hears other sounds too, the sound of water running from the kitchen, then dishes clattering. Then he hears the sound of someone walking out of the house. She must be exploring his property, but what does he care he has nothing to hide here. He tries to forget about the woman, but his thoughts are completely enthralled with her. He'd never admit it, but deep down he's a hopeless romantic. He wants to be someone's knight in shining armor. He wants to be the guy that fulfills one special woman's every need and desire. He wants to care for someone and he wants them to care for him in the same way.

He tries to allow sleep to find him, but that doesn't happen until he hears his house guest reenter the house and he hears the door to his guest room close. Once he knows she's safe in her room, sleep overwhelms him and he drifts away.

When he wakes in the morning, he smells food cooking and the sound of a woman's voice singing. She sounds lovely as she sings to herself. He rises from bed and quickly showers and dresses for the day. He doesn't want to take time to dress after they've eaten. They have another long day of search and rescue and possibly the beginning stages of cleanup around the town and in the valley. So many people were left with nothing, so the faster they can salvage the remnants of their lives and start to rebuild the better for the town and its people.

He enters the kitchen and takes in the beauty who moves effortlessly around his kitchen. It's a sight he's longed for, for a long time. She seems so at home in his kitchen, like she belongs there. But she can't possibly belong there, she has a fiancé. She has someone who wants to marry her, he couldn't ever be the second choice, he would never be happy with that.

He watches for just a moment longer, but when she attempts to reach for a bowl that is out of her reach, he quickly swoops in to help her. Leaning over her, he reached up and grabbed the bowl, pressing his body to hers in the process. The feel of her warmth radiating from her and the way her breath hitched when she felt his chest pressed against her back made him long to be closer to her. He slowly brought the bowl down and placed it on the counter in front of her as he enjoyed the last moments of closeness before he had to move away.

"Thank you," she whispered, smiling toward him. He simply smiled back.

He found a spot at the counter where the stools face the kitchen and he watched her as she finished cooking. Bacon and eggs sizzling on the stove, sausage gravy and biscuits filling the air with buttery goodness. All of his favorite things in one meal.

She filled two plates with biscuits and gravy, bacon, and scrambled eggs. With plates in hand, she turned to face a smiling Percy. "What are you smiling at?" she asked.

Percy smiled wider, "Nothing, it's just you made my favorite breakfast. My mother used to make this for me every week. It's been so long since I had this."

"Well, you had all the ingredients. Besides I thought we would need the energy from a large breakfast to hold us over until we are able to take a break from search and rescue."

Percy smiled at her, but then his smile faltered, "We should make our way to your house to see what we can do there."

She looked down at her plate, and with barely audible words, she agreed. "I know. I need to at least see how bad it is and see if I'll be able to salvage anything."

"Hey, look at me," he tells her. He's not sure what he's feeling right now and he isn't sure if it's something that he even wants to delve into, ever, but he wants to be her friend that he's sure of. When she looks up at him, her stormy grey eyes full of sadness and fear, he has to fight against every instinct in him that tells him to pull her into his arms and comfort her. "I'll be there with you the whole time, I promise. I won't make you do this on your own and you are welcome to stay here for as long as you need. I know you have room at your parents' house, but this room here is always there for you."

"Thank you, Percy," she smiles.

* * *

Annabeth

Annabeth is more confused than ever. When she's with Percy she doesn't think about Leo or the engagement or moving away. She only thinks about the man in front of him. He's so much more sincere and more open than she ever imagined. He's exactly the kind of guy she imagined herself with when she was younger. He's driven, owning his own business creating saddles, he's involved with the community, he knows more people and has helped more people without others realizing than anyone she's ever seen. He risked himself and his safety to save her life without a second thought and even when she was rude and tried pushing him away, he made sure she was warm and safe, and he never asked for anything in return.

She finds herself again thinking about the events of the past two days. The longer she's with him, the more she learns about him and the more it makes her question her relationship with Leo. Could this guy who's supposed to be a player ever be the kind of guy that would want to settle down and make a life with her?

The two of them finished eating breakfast and made their way back to town to volunteer to help with search and rescue and clean-up. After a few more hours of searching the valley for stranded or injured citizens, Percy and Annabeth make their way back to town to start to help with clean-up. When they get there, Luke is standing around trying to look important. He doesn't get his hands dirty with the clean-up, but he tries to tell people what to do and how to do it.

"He is so different than Zeus ever was," Annabeth whispers to Percy. "Zeus would have been knee deep in muck and mud helping the business owners to clean-up so they could open faster."

Thoughts about Zeus make her sad, he was a great man and a great leader. If the town elects someone like Luke to be mayor, the town could really be in trouble. Luke doesn't care about what is best for everyone, only what is best for the most prominent.

"Yeah," Percy agrees, "he would have been right there with us looking for people trapped in their homes in the valley. He wouldn't have needed convincing that we needed a full force of volunteers, he would have just told people that's what was necessary."

Annabeth looks at him and suddenly she considers all he does and has done for their town. "Percy, have you ever considered being mayor?"

He snickers at the thought, "Me, no. I'm not a politician, I couldn't sit there and ask the council to allow me to do things to help people and wait for them to vote on it. I'm more of a doer, not an asker. They wouldn't like me much."

Annabeth smiles, "You're probably right. What would we ever want with a mayor that actually cares about the entire town and all of its citizens? That would just be crazy."

Percy shakes his head at her, "No Annabeth, I'm not running for mayor."

They continue through town and find where the volunteers are signing up and where the needs are. When they arrive they see that the needs in town aren't nearly as significant as they are on the south side of town where Annabeth's home is.

"Maybe it's time that we go and see what condition your house is in," Percy suggests.

She nods but doesn't respond. She's terrified by what they will probably find when they get to her house. The two of them make their way to his truck and begin the short drive to her house.

When they pull in, she can already see the damage. The flood waters and debris broke her first floor windows and the front door has half of a tree trunk sticking out of it. Without her realizing, tears start to make tracks down her cheeks. She saved and scrimped for this house. Her parents offered to help her, but she wanted to do it on her own. Now she has nothing left to show for all of her hard work and sacrifice. Her car was destroyed and the damage to her house will take months to fix.

Percy walks up to her and takes her hand in his. He doesn't say anything about her tears, the damage is so significant he's surprised that there are only a few tears. "Come on Annabeth, let's go inside and take a closer look."

When they get inside they can see the floodwaters reached about four to four and a half feet in her house. All of her furniture and other possessions on the first floor are too far gone. They walk slowly, hand in hand, through her house looking at all of the things in the house that can't be replaced. Pictures and photo albums covered in muck and caked with mud, her computer that holds all of her personal documents, more photos, and other important things lies in the middle of the floor, carried off of the desk by the power of the water. There isn't a spot on the first floor that doesn't have damage.

"There's a second floor here, right?" Percy asks.

"There's half story, a bedroom and some storage space," she explains.

"Is that where your clothes are?" he asks. She nods without a word. "Why don't you go upstairs and gather some clothes and other necessities. I'll be here, I'll start boxing your pictures and other things that we can attempt to salvage.

She nods once more and moves toward the stairs. She can't even think right now, she just acts. She pulls out a duffel bag and starts filling it with clean clothes, undergarments, basically everything she can fit into the bag gets shoved in. Then she gets another duffel and starts filling it with personal items that she has here, her favorite pictures, her laptop, and items she holds dear like the figurines her mother collected for her as a child and her grandmother's jewelry. When the second duffle is filled to splitting, she makes her way back down to find Percy carrying a box out to his truck. He returns and takes the duffels from her and takes them out to his truck.

"Is there anything else here that you want to take?" he asks.

"No, I don't think so."

"Alright, well I'm going to get my chainsaw and cut that tree that busted your door apart so we can board up the doorway. We should probably board up the windows too."

She agrees and they get to work. After some time, the tree is cut and moved, the windows are covered and the last thing Percy does is cover over her door. She won't be returning home for some time.

As they drive back toward town, the question that Percy's been dying to ask finally comes up. "Where do you want to go? You are welcome to stay with me, or I can take you to your parents' ranch, or is there a friend…"

She shakes her head. "I don't know," she whispers. "I don't know what to do."

Then he makes a decision, "You'll come home with me. At least for tonight. Your parents are still out of town and Malcolm is too busy helping around town. You'll be safe at my house, I promise."


	8. Chapter 8

**So our favorite zombie story guy Jumpman23E posted another zombie chapter in the original Playboy Disaster and he's challenging his readers to some very interesting (and annoying lol) tasks. Go and give him some love (but ignore his second challenge! lol)**

Chapter 8

Percy POV

As night starts to settle in once more, Percy and Annabeth make their way back up the mountain to his home. They are silent during the thirty minute ride. Percy isn't sure what she's thinking about, but all he can seem to think about is her. They've been through so much over the past couple days that he isn't sure what he's feeling anymore. He hasn't been this confused since he was a kid, of course he hasn't felt the need to care this much about what a woman is thinking is almost as long. Usually he doesn't give it much thought, he doesn't bother himself with relationships, opting instead to just hook up with some girls, a bunch of girls, which is what earned him his reputation. He wonders if that is something that Annabeth could look past. Could she be the girl that he falls for?

He shakes those thoughts from his head, she's engaged and he's Percy Jackson, she would never give him that kind of chance. He's made his choices and now he has to live with the consequences. He'll just have to settle for friendship and nothing more. He could be okay with that, right? He could go through life as Annabeth's friend. He wonders what her fiancé would thing of their friendship, of course if she does get married to this guy, then friendship won't matter because she'll be moving to Miami.

These thoughts race through his head as he pulls up his 500 foot driveway and toward the garage. Suddenly he's happy that he finally took the time to have to driveway paved this spring, if it was still mud and gravel, it would have been impossible to make it back up the steep hill that leads to his house, even with four wheel drive. He stops in front of the house to unload Annabeth's things from the bed. He places the items on the porch as Annabeth silently moves from the truck to the porch.

Percy parks the truck and finds Annabeth standing on his porch, waiting for him. They gather her things and take them inside. He wishes he knew what she was thinking about. She's been silent since they left her house.

"Annabeth, I'm really sorry about your house and your car. We'll get them fixed, I'll help you if you want."

She smiles at him, "Thank you, Percy. But they are just things. I'll figure it out. Maybe it's time to find a new house or maybe even a… new town."

"You're going to move away?" Percy asks, trying to hide his surprise and disappointment.

"Well, yeah. If I marry Leo, I'll have to move to Miami. He certainly isn't going to move to some mountain town where the closest city and closest university is fifty miles away or more. No, if we get married I'll have to go to him."

"You keep saying 'if' like you aren't sure."

"He asked me three months ago and I couldn't give him an answer. He asked again just before he left for Australia and I still couldn't give him an answer. Who's to say that he didn't change his mind by now? And who could blame him if he did, really. I mean who would want to marry some indecisive know-it-all anyway?" her words are sad and seem almost as if she's given up. Like if this guy will still have her then she will marry him, even if it isn't what she wants.

Without a word, Percy gathers the duffel that is still lying on the porch and the box and carries them to the picnic table sitting on the side of the house. He starts to open the box and take all of her personal items out, the photo albums, the picture frames, and the computer tower all covered in layers of mud. He takes out his utility knife and adjusts it so the screwdriver is out and he starts to take the cover off of the computer tower. If they are going to be able to salvage the hard drive at all, they will have to let it completely dry out first.

He goes into the house and gathers water, sponges, rags, and cleaning supplies. He brings them out and places them near all of her things and starts to clean.

Annabeth POV

Annabeth doesn't know what to think about this man sitting in front of her. Without even the slightest hesitation, he begins to slowly take apart all of her photo frames to remove the pictures. Gently he handles each and every picture like they are precious, and I guess to her they are but to him, they don't really mean anything.

"I think the best thing to do here would be to let the picture sit out and let the mud dry, we might be able to just knock off the dried mud then. If we start wiping at the pictures, they'll just smear and get destroyed," Percy tells her.

"How do you know so much about so many things?" Annabeth asks. "I mean you know politics, you know saddle making, you know farming, you obviously know about cars. How do you know so much?"

"Experience," he tells her. "I watch what people do and I learn from them. It's not hard to pick up things when everyone around you is willing to teach you. I had no choice but to learn how to be a farmer and to care for the animals, we learned to fix the tractors and other farm equipment so it's not hard to transfer that information to cars. My mother has a secret passion for photography, so I learned about pictures and how to care for them from her, and Rachel taught me about computers."

"Rachel Dare?" Annabeth asks. "You were together, weren't you?"

"If you mean we were a couple? No, we weren't. We were friends."

"Friends with benefits, maybe," Annabeth says in a sarcastic manner. She's not sure what her problem is right now, but she feels bitter and annoyed. If she didn't know better, she would think she was jealous. But she can't be jealous, not of Percy.

Percy scowls, his face flushes and his eyes narrow at her, "Not that it's any of your damn business, but I never once slept with Rachel. Those were rumors Luke started when Rachel told him she didn't want to be with him anymore. We were friends, that's all." He pauses and Annabeth looks at him shocked at his outburst, "You know what, I don't need to justify myself to you. You are no better than the people in town that love to start the rumors and keep them going. I've done nothing here but be kind and supportive, and all you do is rag on me and say things like that. Think what you want, Annabeth, but I'm not going to try to justify myself or the relationships I have had with people to anyone, especially you. If you really wanted to know me, then you wouldn't take what people say as fact, you would talk to me."

He stands abruptly and knocking into the table in the process. He turns and goes into the house. The last thing she hears from Percy is his slamming door. Annabeth knows that she's pushed him too far. He's helped her and taken care of her without a complaint or a comment for two days now and all she can manage to do is say things to piss him off. She doesn't know what her problem is, other than the thought of him with another woman makes her stomach churn and her inside feel like they are tied in knots. She won't ever admit it to him, but deep down she knows its jealousy and that is something that scares the hell out of her.

Percy POV

Fuming, Percy gets into the shower to try to wash off the dirt and grim that he collected throughout the day. He's also hoping that the hot water might wash away some of his frustration and anger toward Annabeth.

He can't get over how judgmental she is being toward him. He has not verbally chastised her for her relationship with the possible fiancé. He could rip into her about how she's using him or leading him on or whatever she's doing. He could point out the obvious, that she really doesn't want to marry this dude if she didn't immediately say yes. One thing Percy is sure of, if a woman wants to marry a guy, she won't hesitate when he asks her. Her only possible answer would be yes. Yet this guy has proposed twice and Annabeth still hasn't given him an answer. Percy figures this guy must either be the most patient man alive, or he really doesn't care one way or another.

Percy stands in the shower letting the hot water wash over his sore muscles until the water runs cold. He gets out and puts on a pair of gym shorts and a tank top. Hoping that she's maybe decided to go to bed or is still outside taking care of her things he makes his way to the kitchen to make dinner. He's happy when he gets in there and she's nowhere to be seen. He almost wishes he could rescind his offer for her to stay in his house, but he would never do that.

Percy busies himself making dinner, all the while thinking about the things she says and the way she acts. He can't figure this woman out. She avoids him most of their life, then she throws herself at him one night and gets mad when he doesn't jump just because she wants him to. Then when he convinces her he isn't Hades himself and they start to get along, she suddenly turns and starts ragging on him about things from his past. She's still not bothered to really get to know him for who he is right now. For someone so smart, she's incredibly narrow-minded.

He finishes dinner in time for Annabeth to enter the kitchen with her duffel. Percy takes in the look of her and wishes beyond reason that she would see him for who he is, not what he's done in the past. He's a different guy, he has been for a while. Yeah, he was the playboy in his younger days and he was proud of it, but he hasn't been that guy for a while.

"Dinner's ready," he tells her. "Help yourself."

He gathers his plate, utensils, and cup and begins to walk past her and into the living room. When he reaches her he stops and looks at her. He can see the tracks her tears have made on her cheeks and the redness and puffiness of her eyes. He has no idea why she was crying, but he almost can't control the urge to comfort her. He wants to comfort her, he wants to be the strong one for her, but his anger and frustration won't let him do that for her. He won't beg anyone for their acceptance.

Instead of acknowledging the fact that she was crying, he moves past her and continues to the kitchen. If she wants a real friendship with him, she's going to have to meet him half way. He's almost positive she won't do that.

She proves him right when she doesn't say a word, she just moves toward the guest room and closes the door.

Annabeth POV

Annabeth enters the room and breaks down in tears again. He hardly said anything to her and he really didn't even look at her. She's positive that she's ruined any chance at friendship or anything else with him. Not that she can blame him for being angry with her, she's still ragging on him for the things he's done in the past. Or rumors of things that he's done in the past, she's not sure what's true and what's not. Rumors are like wildfire in a small town like theirs and no one ever knows for sure what's true and what isn't but they are all willing to contribute to the spread of rumors.

Ashamed of her behavior but unsure of what she could do to fix it, she does the only thing she can right now, she gathers clothes from her duffel and moves out of the guest room and into the bathroom where she gets into the shower. As the water beats on her body and washes away the dirt she's accumulated throughout the day, the tears stream freely down her cheeks. The water from the shower quickly mixing with her salty tears. The emotions of the day overwhelm her and force her to cry hysterically. The damage to her house, her car, her life, then the difficulties with Percy, and thoughts of Leo overwhelm her. By the time the shower begins to run cold, she's so exhausted from crying and her eyes hurt.

She quickly dresses and makes her way out of the bathroom. She drops her dirty clothes in the room she's staying in and goes out to the living room, but Percy isn't there anymore. She goes into the kitchen and finds nothing but a plate of food and a strainer of clean dishes. Out of curiosity she peers outside to see if he's there. She sees him sitting at the picnic bench cleaning more of her belongings. After the way she's treated him and the things she's said, he's still doing things for her. This realization makes her feel even worse.

She moves away from the window and takes the plate of food that he prepared for her, chicken, potatoes, and peas. She sits alone at the counter and eats in silence, thinking about how she can make amends with this man that she's realizing she never really knew. She's beginning to wonder if anyone ever has. Everyone knew the boy Percy Jackson. They know the rumors, and what they believe, but does anyone really know the man Perseus Jackson?

As Annabeth finishes her dinner and takes the plate to the sink to wash it, she vows that she's going to get to know the man. She's going to do everything in her power to know Perseus Jackson. And maybe, just maybe she will find a new friend.

Percy POV

Percy hears Annabeth moving around in the kitchen, then he can feel her gaze upon him. He's always so acutely aware of her presence and when she is looking at him. It's like he has a sixth sense for sensing her. It actually annoys him that he's so aware of her.

He continues to try to salvage her photographs as he takes the pictures from the photo album and places them on the table to dry out. As he removes the pictures, he comes across a picture from a very long time ago. From a time when Annabeth played with dolls and Percy loved to torment her. It was a picture of the two of them sitting in the climbing tree on Annabeth's parents' property. The two of them had so much fun in that tree when they were kids. They would pretend all kinds of things hanging from that tree.

Seeing this picture brings a smile to his face. The happy memories of a childhood full of fun and wonder, of two kids that were friends before anyone told them that they shouldn't be friends or that they were too different to be friends, before life changed them and jaded them. He remembers riding his horse to see her when they were in middle school, how they would talk about everything and how they made plans for their future. Annabeth was always going to be a teacher, even then she would try to play teacher with Percy. Percy always knew he was going to work on the ranch and even then he had an affinity for working with leather and creating things.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Annabeth standing in the doorway of the house looking unsure of herself. She's always seems so in control that this change surprises him.

"Remember when we would sit in the tree climbing tree at the edge of your parents' property and play?" he asks her. He's not sure what's making him talk to her right now. Maybe it's the look of pure sadness in her eyes or maybe the memories just overwhelmed him and made him nostalgic for the past. Regardless of the reason, he feels better when he speaks to her.

Percy notices a small smile creep across her lips. Her perfect, full, pink lips. He chastises himself for thinking that and tries to focus on other things, but all he sees is her beautiful face, her perfect body, and her the fact that when he speaks to her, her demeanor immediately goes from sad and guarded to lighter and almost happy.

"Of course I remember that tree. What made you think about it?"

Percy holds up the picture that prompted the flashback and recognition flashes in her eyes. "Oh wow, I forgot about that picture. We had a lot of fun that summer," she says smiling.

"Yeah, we did," he doesn't elaborate. He simply closes the album, "It's getting late, I think I'm going to turn in." He begins to walk past her and into the house when she grabs his arm and stops him. When he looks at her expectantly he can see something different in her stormy grey eyes. He's not sure what she's doing or what she's thinking, but he doesn't pull away from her. He waits to see what she has to say before he moves on into the house.

Annabeth POV

Without another word and without thinking about the repercussions of her actions, she grabs his arm. He stops and looks at her expectantly. Neither of them says a word for a few long moments. Before Annabeth can lose her nerve or talk herself out of it, she presses her lips to his.


	9. Sorry

So sorry I've been MIA, I just haven't been very motivated to write lately. Had a lot going on with the end of the semester and the holidays. Lots of papers to write and finals to study for. Now I'm taking winter session classes to try to get ahead so I can graduate a semester sooner. And of course the holidays and being back at home instead of my apartment on campus. I had to hang with my brothers and sisters and I had to help my mom cook and bake and clean. So now that all of that is winding down and I'm not doing much other than reading and taking tests every day, hopefully I'll get some more writing done soon. Please forgive me, I promise I won't let these stories just die without some kind of ending for them, just bear with me and be patient with me. And remember, any ideas for Truth or dare, keep them coming!

Love you all!


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